Archives for September, 2013

Is internet porn addiction related to internet addiction? I don’t know of any data specifically on this point. My colleague Maria Robinson believes that porn addiction is “above all, an internet addiction”. She argues that addiction to internet porn has different properties from addiction to other sexual behaviors.

The standard set of categories currently in use to describe sexually addictive behavior according to three levels of severity is not wrong, but it has limitations. And I would argue that it can be misleading to sex addicts in treatment in a number of ways.

Here is the level system as described by Patrick Carnes in Out of the Shadows:

When I “e-meet” someone, that is connect online, I often have strong and immediate feelings that I like them or that I don’t, even though I have never seen them or talked to them in person. It is not a stretch to see that this feeling of connection can be experienced by many people as an intimate and even sexual attraction. (I have dealt with the topic of connecting sexually through cybersex vs....

Sex addicts don’t have a monopoly on loneliness although they often say it is one reason for their sexually compulsive behavior. I was lonely as a child myself and I feel sympathy for my clients who have trouble dealing with loneliness and feeling abandoned.

People feel lonely in many different situations and for different reasons. I believe there is always a way to understand and and use the experience .